Dorothy Hinton relates integration struggles, says path is clear

Megan MosherDorothy Hinton relates her experiences in the Loranger community during the Civil Rights Movement.

Mrs. Dorothy Murray Hinton, 87, of Loranger, said although there were struggles with integration during the Civil Rights Movement, America has come a long way and the road is clear for all races.

"It's no excuse for the blacks anymore," she said "The doors are open for us now. All we have to do is walk in. And don't sit down, get to work."

As the mother of five sons, Hinton knows what it means to get to work. During her sons' education she looked out for their rights and safety at school in many different ways. She told of bailing one son out of jail when he was accused of calling white girls on the phone, moving him to Baton Rouge to finish high school and even preventing her youngest son from attending a riot.

"I would not let him go to school that day," Hinton said. "I took one of his shoes. He had on one shoe walking around saying, 'Mama, I gotta go. Mama, I gotta go.' I said 'No you can't go because it's no good you going.' They had planned a riot, but it didn't happen."

Hinton's community experienced very few racially charged incidents during the Civil Rights Movement, an occurrence which Hinton attributes to the good relationships between the whites and the blacks in the area.

"The community before Civil Rights was real good. Everybody knew everybody," she said. She described the people in the community as being on good terms, the children playing well together and neighbors sharing fresh-baked rolls and home-cooked ham. In Hinton's community, blacks who worked for their white neighbors were not made to eat outside underneath a tree, but ate inside the house at the family table.

"The Civil Rights wasn't that bad with the people in the community," she said. "I had three different white men come and tell me things for our benefit. We still had our good relationship. It was just the school. It was just the little black children going to the white school."

Even though integration caused some upheaval, Hinton believed it was time for it to happen. "Busing is wrong," she said. "I think every child ought to go to school in his own neighborhood. Moving children out of their neighborhood, out of their environment is wrong. Let them stay there and they'll learn better."

Education is very important to Hinton who graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in 2005 and recently received her doctorate in theology. She stressed that the first step to success is receiving an education.

"Get your education, that's the first thing," she said. "Get your education and you can't be denied. Get your qualification and whatever you go for you can make it.